Yesterday, belligerent March / attacked with a bomb cyclone. / Today, calm settled upon / the dismembered limbs of trees / scattered in the streets, dusted / with confectioners’-sugar snow. / Some resolute leaves still cling / to the mockernut tree by the road. // We awoke to the icy sunlight / and rumors of foreign wars / in places where hard-hearted / and stiff-necked tyrants, exceeding / all limits and decent proportions / for ambition, explode innocents, / rend the flesh of children, of mothers, fathers, invalids,/ atomize the hopes of youth, / the memories of the aged. // With merciless disdain, violence, / they crave Ozymandias’s fame — / or even less. To them, / slaughter seems small price to pay / for the gilt of ultimate oblivion. // All journeys end in this / unmindful land, all strivings / tend there, all dreams, all empires. // All ends in brilliant oblivion, / drenched in the icy sunshine, / the silent calm, the peace / after the tempest’s tantrum.
The End
The End
The End
Yesterday, belligerent March / attacked with a bomb cyclone. / Today, calm settled upon / the dismembered limbs of trees / scattered in the streets, dusted / with confectioners’-sugar snow. / Some resolute leaves still cling / to the mockernut tree by the road. // We awoke to the icy sunlight / and rumors of foreign wars / in places where hard-hearted / and stiff-necked tyrants, exceeding / all limits and decent proportions / for ambition, explode innocents, / rend the flesh of children, of mothers, fathers, invalids,/ atomize the hopes of youth, / the memories of the aged. // With merciless disdain, violence, / they crave Ozymandias’s fame — / or even less. To them, / slaughter seems small price to pay / for the gilt of ultimate oblivion. // All journeys end in this / unmindful land, all strivings / tend there, all dreams, all empires. // All ends in brilliant oblivion, / drenched in the icy sunshine, / the silent calm, the peace / after the tempest’s tantrum.